The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-25
FORGIVENESS. "
Rev. DR.. Talmage's Sermon Last
Sunday Morning
AT THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

Che Brooklyn tabernacle this morning on the
subject: forgiveness Before Shutdown
AFTER explaining some passages concerning
Hezekiah, Dr. Talmage gave out the following
hymn, which was sung by the congregation
''This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way
While each in expectation lives
And longs to see the day."
Professor Henry Eyre Browne rendered on
Che organ an aria with variations, by Cramer.
Ihe text of the sermon was from Ephesus :26
%-sLet not the sun go down upon your WRATH
Or. Talmage said
What pillow embroidered ofall colors hath
she dying day This cradle of clouds from
which the sun rises is beautiful enough, but it
Us surpassed by the any-colored mausoleum in
which at evening it is buried. Sunset among
the mountain 1t almost takes ones breath
away to recall the scene. The long shadows
stretching over the plain make the glory of the
departing light on the tip-top crags and struck
aslant through the foliage, the more transpicu-
GUS. Saffron and gold, purple and crimson
commingled.. Ali the castles of cloud in con-
dagration. Burning Moscows in the sky.
Hanging gardens of roses at their deepest
blush. Banners of vapor, red as if from earn
age, in the battle of the elements. The hunter
among the Adirondacks land the Swiss yillager
among the Alps know what is q sunset among
the mountains. After q storm at sea
the rolling grandeur into which the sun goes
OONu W UdblG db lll9ullall Is SOUlellliS 10
make weird and splendid dreams out OF for
lifetime. Alexander Smith in his poem COM
pares the sunset to ''the barren beach of he'll ~
but this wonderful spectacle OF nature makes
me think of the Furnished wall of heaven.
Paul in prison writing my text remembers
some of the gorgeous sunsets among the mount
aims of Asia Minor and how he had often seen
the towers of Damascus blaze in the close of
the Oriental days, and he flashes out that
memory in the text when he says: LET not
the sun go down upon your wrath"
Sublime and all suggestive duty for people
chen and people now. Forgiveness before sun
down. He who never feels the throb of iudig-
nation is imbecile. He who can walk among
the injustices of the world, inflicted upon him.
self and others, without flush of cheek, or flash
of eye, or agitation of nature, is either in SYM
pathy with wrong or semi-idiotic. When
Ananias, the high priest ordered the con-
stables OF the courtroom to smite Paul in the
mouth, Paul fired up and said "God shall
Smite thee, thou whited wall" In the SEN
tence immediately before my text Paul COM
gnands the Ephesans: BE ye angry and sin
not" 1t all depends on what you are mad at
and how long the feeling lasts whether anger
Is right or wrong. Life is full of
exasperatlons. Saul after David. Succoth
after Gideon, korah after Moses, the Pasquins
after Augustus, the Pharisees after Christ,
and everyone has had his pursuers, and we
are swindled, or belied, misrepresented, or
prosecuted, or in some way wronged, and the
danger is that healthful indignation shall be-
come baleful spite, and that our feelings settle
down into prolonged outpouring of temper
displeasing to God and ruinous to ourselves,
and hence the important injunction of the
text, ''Let not the sun 90 down upon YOUR
wrath
Why that limitation to ones anger? Why
shat period of flaming vapor set to punctuate a
flaming disposition? What has the sunset got
60 do with ones resentful emotions? Was it q
haphazard sentiment written by Paul without
special significance? No, no; / think of five
reasons why we should not let the sun set be-
fore our temper sets.
toFirst: Because twelve hours is long enough
be cross about any wrong inflicted upon u.s.
Nothing is SO exhausting to physical health or
mental faculty as protracted. indulgence Of
fll-humor. 1t racks the nervous system, it
hurts the indigestion, it heats the blood in
tbrain and heart until the whole body is first
oyerheated and then depressed. Besides that,
bit sours the disposition, turns one aside from
his legitimate work. expends energies that
ought to be better employed and does us more
rus good wide allowance of time for legiti-
snate denunciation, from six o'clock to six
O'Clock, but says: 'Stop there!" Watch the
descending orb of day, and when it reaches
the horizon take reef in your disposition.
Unloose your collar and cool off.
change the subject to something delightfully."-
pleasant. Unroll your tight fist and shake
hands with some one. Bank up the fires at
She curfeW bell. Drive the bowling dog of
enmity back to its kennel. The hours of the
morning viii pass by, and the afternoon will
arrive, and the sun will begin to set, and I beg
you on its blazing hearth throw all your feuds,
1nyectives and satireS.
Other things being equal, the man who pre-
serves good temper will come out ahead. An
old essayist says that the celebrated John Hen
derson Of Bristol, England, was at a dining
party where political excitement ran high and
the debate got angry, and while Henderson
was speaking, his opponent, unable to answer
his argument, dashed a glass of wine i'll his
face, when the speaker deliberately wiped the
liquid from his face and said: "This, sir, is di-
gression now, if you please, for the main argu-
nent." While worldly philosophy could help
but very few to such equipoise OF spirits, the
grace Of God could help any man to such a
Triumph. Impossible" you say, 81 would
have either left the table in anger or have
knocked the man down" But l have come to
believe that nothing is impossible if God help,
since what / saw at Betl-Shan faith cure in
London, England, two summers ago, While
the religious service was going on, Rev. DIR.
Boardmau glorious man since gone to his
Heavenly rest, was telling the scores of SICK
people present that Christ was there as of old
TO heal all diseases, and that, if they would
only believe, their sickness would depart. l
saw a woman near me, with hand and arm
twisted of rheumatism, and her wrist was
fiery Of inflammation, and 1T locke like those
cases OF chronic rheumatism which we have all
seen and sympathized with, cases beyond all
human healing. AT the preachers reiteration
of the words: "Will you believe? DO you
believe? DO you believe now?" L heard this
poor sick woman say, with emphasis which
Sounded;through the building: 81 do believe"
And then she laid her twisted arm and hand
out as straight as your arm and hand, or mine.
If Il had seen rise from the
dead i would not have been much more
thrilled. Since then I believe that God
win do anything in answer to our prayer and
In answer to our faith, and he can heal our
bodies, and if our soul is all twisted and mis-
shapen of revenge or hate and inflamed with
sinful proclivity, he can straighten that, also,
aud make it well and clean. Aye, you viii
not postpone till sundown the forgive
ness of enemies if you can realize that their
behavior toward you may be put into the csta-
logue Of the ''all things" that ''work together
for good to those that5Iaye God" have had
multitudes of friends, but have
found in my own experience,
chat God so arranged it that the greatest
Opportunities OF usefulness that have been
opened before were opened by enemies. And
when, years ago, they conspired against me,
that opened all Chrisiendom to me as a field
in which to preach the gospel. So you may
harness your antagonists TO your best interests
and compel them to draw you on to better
work and higher character. Suppose, instead
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